Exam 21: Variables Affecting the Therapeutic Environment: Violence and Suicide

For which situation would clinical supervision be most important in assuring safety?

A suicide crisis line caller states, "I called to say goodbye to someone." What is the nurse's best response?

A nurse who has worked on an acute psychiatric unit for 5 years has begun describing patients in insensitive ways and is less creative when dealing with patient problems.What is the most likely explanation for the nurse's behavior?

How does the social-psychological models describe aggression?

Which principle guides nursing intervention in the assault cycle?

Select the most appropriate comment by the nurse when a depressed patient says, "What's the use in going on?"

A patient is increasingly tense, pacing the hall and glaring angrily at others.What is the nurse's best response to this patient's behavior?

A novice nurse on an inpatient psychiatric unit says to a colleague, "My newest patient has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.At least I won't have to monitor for a suicide risk." Select the colleague's most accurate response.

A patient is shouting loudly and is verbally aggressive.What analysis should the nurse make about this behavior?

A depressed patient admitted following a suicide attempt by overdose of sedatives states, "I don't feel like signing your papers.My partner should have let me die." What level of suicide precautions should the nurse apply?

The nurse in charge of a crisis team determines that a patient who has lost control requires restraint.What is the most important factor in the safe and effective use of physical restraint?

A patient's behavior has continued to escalate despite nursing interventions designed to achieve de-escalation.The patient begins to kick and strike at staff.This behavior evidences which phase of the assault cycle?

A patient is becoming increasingly tense, pacing the hall, alternately whispering, and shouting.Other patients receive hostile, suspicious glares as they walk by.Which phase of the assault cycle is the patient demonstrating?

A psychiatric nurse is demonstrating characteristics of burnout.What effect would be expected on patients under this nurse's care?

Four individuals have suicide plans.Which plan evidences the highest risk for completed suicide?

A patient being treated at the mental health center says, "I am having thoughts about suicide." What is the nurse's most therapeutic response?

A tearful patient at the mental health center says, "I should be dead." What is the most important first task for the nurse in assessing this patient?

An experienced staff nurse describes feeling emotionally burdened and yet engages actively in gossip and spreading rumors about other staff members.The clinical nurse leader can assess these behaviors as consistent with what condition?

A student tells the school nurse, "My friend threatened to take an overdose of pills." The nurse talks to the friend who verbalized the suicidal threat.What is the most critical question for the nurse to ask?

When assessing a patient's plan for suicide, what aspect has priority?